Silly little things..

I find these lists a little hard to write now because I have become so accustomed to everything here but i had these jotted down in my journal so I thought I might share them with you...
1. Spanish school is very traditional. Teachers literally lecture the whole 40 min of class. There is no discussion within the students or hands-on projects. Teachers talk and students take notes in every class.
2. Students call their teachers by their first names.
3. Cell phones are generally expensive here. For example it is really expensive to call a mobil phone from a house phone and a mobil phone from a mobil phone, but it is free to call a house phone from all phones.
4. Most people here absolutely love the movies and know a lot about actresses and actors.
5. Eggs, rice and tomate frio (which is like ketchup but more tomato-y) is a common lunch meal.
6. When spanish people study, they STUDY. Like they don't leave their house for a week and study every day.
7. Spain is a really energy conservative country. Almost every household air-dries their clothes along with being super conscious of how many lights are on and such and there is tons of wind energy here also.
8. Soup kind of like "chicken noodle" but with out the chicken, peas and carrots. So just noodles and broth is super common here along with lentils, and garbanzo beans cooked with sausage and meat.
9. The health-care system here is wonderful I was recently sick and had to go to the doctor so my housekeeper Pepi walked me to our clinic that is right across the street from my house, I showed them my ID and health insurance card and waited for about 15 mins. The doctor asked me my symptoms, checked my breathing then put all the information in a computer that was in the room. He diagnosed me and wrote me a prescription for the medicine.
10. Spanish men are very upfront with woman they don't know. For example it is common for older men to whistle and scream "guapa" which means beautiful at a woman walking down the street.
11. People don't say thank you as much as Americans do. When I first got here I found people looking at me funny when I would say thank you for everything.
12. I was recently 10 mins late to school because of traffic and when I entered the common area the secretary wouldn't unlock the door to the hallway. If you are able to get into the hallway, once you open the door to the classroom you must ask permission to come in.
13. I experienced a fire drill the other day at school and this is how it went. A bell that sounds exactly like our in between classes bell went off. Everyone looked around and was confused because clearly class was not over. The teacher then said...everyone outside it is a practice fire drill. So every ran outside in a chaotic state and then everyone realized it was raining. So the whole entire school huddled under the entrance to apartment buildings next to my school. We were not in any form of organization. I didn't even know where my teacher and rest of my class was. Very sufficient , wouldn't you say?
14. No one really moves out of their house with their parents until they are out of university or even older. 25 or 26.
15. My favorite word that spanish people say in english is cousin. They pronounce it like this "cowsin" haha

Here are a few silly things I miss from the US...
!. Bagels. We have no such thing here.
2. Hanging out at home with friends only because here in Spain you almost never have friends over. Your house is generally a place for only the family. I found this super hard to grasp when I first got here.
3. Hot-tubbing. I have yet to see a hot tub here and this is the typical thing to do in Tahoe.
4. Mexican food mexican style. This is impossible to find here.
5. Snow! I never thought I would miss it, but i miss those days where you know it is a snow day without even getting out of bed.

El Fin de las Fiestas

Hello all!

Sorry it has been a little while since I updated everyone. My holiday season has come to an end, here in Spain. I will say it was great, but I was not used to it being as dragged out as it was here. I went to Barcelona with my host father and I have to say it is hands down the coolest city I have ever been to next to San Francisco. The only way I can really explain it is by saying it had SO much history along with TONS of life. When we arrived, on Christmas Eve, we had dinner at my aunt's house, Anna my host Father's sister. We had raw salmon, shrimp, bread, crab and chicken. After, she set up a scavenger hunt with clues to our presents hidden throughout the house. It was lot's of fun. During our stay my host father stayed at his sister's house and Nerea and I stayed at Anna's best friend's house, Nuria. On Christmas Day we woke up and the weather was sunny for a change and prepared for a big Christmas lunch at Nuria's house. Nuria's Mother made typical Chritmas food for Catalunya. We had a soup that had huge pasta shells in it for starters and then cooked garbanzos, potatoes and sausage for the main course. And then of course for dessert we had what's called Turrón which are a typical holiday sweets here in Spain. There a couple different kinds but they are usually similar to peanut brittle, but chewier. After lunch we went to the center of the city and Nuria and my host father gave me a walking tour. Keep in mind in Barcelona they speak two languages, Castilian Spanish, and Catalan. Therefore, many times I was quite confused in fact I remeber asking my sister what they were speaking and she just looked at me with a blank face and said, "Catalan." I felt stupid at first, but by the end of the trip I had picked up a couple words. It is super similar to spanish but some words are cut off for example "pan" means bread and in Catalan "pa" is bread.
These are some pictures of the things I got to see on my night tour on Christmas, some of which are on the famous street, Passeig de Grácia.

Here we have two of the famous Gaudí houses, Casa Milá and Casa Batlló



Here is a picture of the "Macy's of Spain" lit up in Plaza Catalunya.

Here is probably the prettiest Cathedral I have ever been in, in Spain. I am sorry, but I do not remember the name.





The next day I got to see more of the city along with the famous La Sangrada Familia by Gaudí and Parc Güell also designed by Gaudí. I was honestly blown away by the architecture in both places, I completely feel in love with Gaudí.





During the rest of my stay I got to see a lot of places of Barcelona that the typical tourist wouldn't see. Along with Tibidabo a church and Theme Park on the top of a moutain that overlooks Barcelona. In the following pictures: Me below the famous Christopher Columbus statue. He is said to be pointing to the Americas, but he is clearly pointing at the Mediterranean and then
view from Tibidabo.


While in Barcelona I also got to of course walk the famous Las Ramblas and go to the famous St Josep market.




After returning from Barcelona I celebrated New Years here in Madrid with my sister and host father. We had dinner at home, oven baked fish, and then at midnight we ate 12 grapes at countdown. This is a tradition for good luck in Spain and it is a lot harder than it looks. Nerea and I then went out with some friends at 3:45am, we got hot chocolate and churros for breakfast and then finally returned home at 9:00am. This is typical for Spain. I then spent the rest of my break hanging out with friends and relaxing. The weather here in Madrid has been quite chilly. We actually got a lot of snow this past weekend and Emma, Sam and I all went to Parque del Retiro and took pictures of the pretty snow covered park.


I am now back in school and my next big adventure is Paris! At the end of February.

I wish you all a happy New Year from 9,000 miles away.
Besitos!

Photos below:
I took this picture because i thought it was really cool to see some kids skateboarding in front of the Royal Palace. People come from all over the world to see this, and this is literally where spanish teenagers just hang out.
The table set for Thanksgiving dinner
And the Christmas lights that line Gran Vía, a famous street in Madrid. The whole city is decorated and looks incredible.

Merry Christmas!!

Just wanted to send you an update and wish you all a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Everything is going great here in Spain. It is everything i expected and much much more. My birthday was wonderful, i spent the night at Emma's house the night before and then in the morning her family made me an apple pie and put candles in it and sang to me. Then the following weekend was Emma's birthday and we went out to a dance club called Independence with some of my friends. On Thanksgiving I attended a huge Rotary dinner with all the exchange students in Madrid as well as the Rotarians. We had an interesting meal that consisted of a drumstick and a small serving of potatoes. Dessert was an orange cake that was not very sweet, but I can't blame them considering they don't celebrate that holiday here.

I wish I had tons to say, but honestly everything I do here has become my life, I go to school, hang out with friends and occasionally travel to Southern Spain (Jerez) to visit my host Mom. I just got back from their yesterday, I went down to celebrate and early Christmas with her. It was great, the whole house was decorated with a tree and lights, very similar to the US. For Christmas dinner we had shrimp( by the way they serve it with the eyes and whole head attached) along with raw salmon and lemon as appetizers, and for the main course lamb that was marinated solely in salt and olive oil (like everything here), and salad. For dessert an apple tart and chocolates. After dinner we opened presents and my host mom got me a cute sweater dress and a beautiful scarf.

Here in Spain Christmas is celebrated a little different than the US, most people now a days celebrate it like we do, with Santa Claus on Christmas eve and ect. But some people celebrate what is called "Tres Reyes" the The Three Kings, on the 6th of January. Little kids leave their favorite pair of shoes out and the Three Kings come and fill them with candy and presents, like stockings. Then they leave a present, like Santa. But, my family has always celebrated Santa Claus, therefore we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Day.

Tomorrow I am going to Barcelona to spend christmas with my host father and his sister, along with my host sister and host brother who has returned from the US, do to problems he had there. I am really looking forward to getting to know that city, because my host Dad grew up there so its a perfect opportunity. Other than that, the language and everything else is starting to click here, and I feel more at home every day.

I attached a few photos of what i have been doing:

I forgot to add, i also went to the Reina Sofia, which is a famous Modern Art museum here in Madrid. Emma and I went and explored one out of 4 floors and we got to see Picassos famous Guernica (picture below).. It was wonderful.
Also below... Rastro and Sam, Jesse, Emma and I.

Hello everyone,

Sorry it has been awhile. Halloween was great, I went to a small house party with some of my sister's friends. I was really surprised to see that everyone was dressed up, and the whole house was decorated. Since then I have just kinda been settleing in. Going to school (kinda) and hanging with friends. I hang out a lot with a girl named Emma, she is also an exchange student from Fort Collins, Colorado. And then also a boy named Jesse who is from upstate New York and a girl named Sam who is from Minneapolis. It is really fun to get togher with them and speak english, but at the same time I sometimes feel guilty for speaking too much english.

The weekend after Halloween was Jesse's birthday, so Emma and I took the bus about 30 mins out of the center of Madird to a town called Majadahonda, where Jesse and Sam live. We baked him brownies from to box-brownies that Emma's Mom sent her and bought him silly gifts. We even put 17 candles on a tiny brownie for him! We went out to a great Italian restaurant for dinner and the Emma and I went back into Madrid.

The weekend after that I went to a street market here in Madrid called El Rastro with Sam and Emma, it is every Sunday in the center of Madrid. It was the second time I had been. After we met up with my host Dad at the oldest bar in Madrid for a delicious lunch and after we went to a theatre that also has a cafe in it and got hot chocolate (which by the way is more like hot pudding here). It was a great day in the city.

This past weekend I went to Jerez to visit my host Mom again with Nerea. Before we left I found out that my host brother (Nerea's brother, Fernando) was most likely coming back to Spain, because he got in a little trouble with Rotary in the US. That whole weekend, my host Mom and Dad tried really hard to find ways to get Fernando to stay in Minneoplis, but in the end he had to come home. In the midst of all the confusion I had a great weekend, I went to my fist discoteca, and it blew my mind. There was a guy on stilts dancing on stage. I also watched a bunch of movies with Nerea and relaxed.

Fernando is in Madrid for the week, and then he will be moving to Jerez to live with my host Mom and attend high school. So thanks to him moving, I dont have to move families, I am very fortunate.

Other than that I have just been living like a Spaniard, learning lots of spanish still, and trying my hardest to speak it.

Just some funny thoughts:
1. They don't have bagels here, and it is quite depressing.
2. The weather is still very warm here for the middle of November.
3. They don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, but Rotary has put together a dinner for all the exchange students.
4. I don't have school from Dec 23- Jan 10, and will most likely be spending Christmas here in Madrid, which will most likely be beautiful because I have seen the lights they are putting up in the city.. I don't know about New Years.
5. Spain is very power conservative, almost all houses hang dry all the laundry.
6. Still reading Harry Potter in Spanish and I am learning lots of Wizard vocabulary.

I will be visiting two former exchange students, Julien and Victoria in Paris France from Feb 20-28 and I couldnt be more excited.

Hope all is well, all good thoughts*

below Sevilla, famous light tower that used to be covered in gold and the Plaza that the movies were filmed at.

above Strait of Gibraltar and the Peak along with a picture on the only ski resprt in Madrid